Documentaries
by flostygritter
Summary: Craig Tucker's life is almost as dull as the documentaries he makes, but when Stan Marsh turns up to help him create his latest project they both find that change can sometimes be for the better. Slash, Stan x Craig.


**Documentaries**

**Chapter 1: **Paper Thief

**Disclaimer:** I do not own South Park or its characters, they are the property of Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

**Summary:** Craig Tucker's life is almost as dull as the documentaries he makes, but when Stan Marsh turns up to help him create his latest project both of them find that change can sometimes be for the better.

**Pairing:** Stan x Craig

* * *

Of all the moments to receive an ultimatum regarding your future as a documentary maker, Craig Tucker's boss had chosen the most rotten. It was not at all exceptional for Craig to be told how low the ratings were for his shows, neither was it exceptional for him to learn about the poor critical reception they had received. Nevertheless, today's news could definitely fit into the category of exceptional and for all the most unfortunate reasons.

'Yes. I'll sort it out,' Craig replied bluntly, glad that the phone call had finally ended.

Nothing quite puts a dampener on your day like hearing that you're about to get fired if you don't put out a decent bit of television.

But it was not the news itself that had spoiled an otherwise unexceptional day. It was instead the circumstance surrounding the reception of the news. The fact that Craig had mistakenly put his boss on speakerphone.

'Was that your boss?'

Of course, of all the moments to deliver such news, his boss had to choose the moment when Ruby was in the room.

'Yes,' Craig tried to reply flatly, in hopes to discourage his sister from continuing the conversation. He glanced down at the papers in front of him. He always had papers in front of him. He didn't really know what was on the papers, most of them were just old invoices or letters about investments, but they offered a nice escape from the intensity of his sister's glare.

'And what was he saying?'

People always do this, Craig mused. They know full well what you or someone else said, and yet they force you to repeat it for their own sick sadistic pleasure. 'He said that the network isn't too happy.'

'Right.' the intensity of her foot tapping increased.

'And that they were considering pulling our slot unless we think of something which will get better ratings,' he glanced upwards to see her leaning against the front of his desk.

'Our slot? Craig, you're the producer. When did 'we' and 'our' come into it?'

'Well,' give a girl a job and she throws it right back in your face, 'unless I think of something better I suppose.'

'So. Do you think we could go in a new direction? Something a bit different from the usual 2 hours of repetitive capybara footage?'

'I suppose so.' was the muted reply.

Upon hearing this, Ruby broke out of the choppy, angry woman persona she assumed whenever she was on the cusp of being proved right, and returned to the more easy-going version of her. She had known from the moment Craig started filming capybara in Brazil that this idea was not going play out well, and she had been proven right. As much as she admired her brother's dedication to educating the masses about rodents, and also his dedication to avoiding filming anywhere in Peru, she knew better than anyone that he was not the master of riveting television. He had his peak back in fourth grade with 'Animals Close-up with a Wide Angle Lens' and although his passage into his twenties had allowed his inherent anger to simmer, it had also dampened his limited sense of humour which meant that fun shows with animals wearing hats had been replaced with hard-hitting television about the diversity of rabbit habitats.

Craig sat back in his chair and contemplated what he was going to do. His boss gave him a lot of creative control, but after 6 flopped documentaries Craig had come to realise that you can only push somebody so far. It was times like these that he appreciated the mundanity of his everyday life, normally he'd just get a mildly-irritated phone call from his boss about how unsuccessful 'Capybara Capers' had been, and he'd go back to work on another equally dull documentary. But today was not one of those days. Today was a day where immediate action was required. And Craig had no idea what kind of action to take. He did not like this feeling of uncertainty. Nor did he like the concept of having to do something radical and interesting to interest viewers. What did they know anyway?

'Maybe you should go down another road.'

'Huh?' all this contemplation had made Craig oblivious to the actions of his sister, who was now sitting on his desk leafing through some papers. There were two types of people in this world, the people that looked through papers for information and the people that looked through papers as a distraction.

'Look, we need a selling point. People love to feel as if they're involved. It's backseat activism. We need to show the viewers something tragic, something controversial.'

'What are you suggesting.'

'How about pollution and its effects on animals-'

'Oh god Ruby. No!' Craig raked his fingers through his stubble. Is this what he has been reduced to? It sounded like a sixth grader's geography homework.

'No wait, Craig. Okay, so. Here's how I see it. We follow a habitat which has been affected by contamination or pollution or whatever. We show how the animals have suffered, tug at the viewers heartstrings. And we show everyone how wrong they are to treat the planet in this way, make everyone feel guilty, get some animal charity involved, you know? It's topical. There'll be shocking footage. Sad photos that people can email to one another in an act of passive activism.'

'I'm not doing it.'

'Why not?'

It's so annoying when people do that whiny voice, Craig thought. He rubbed his palm over his nose, sat back and sighed. Maybe this was the end for his documentary making. He clearly couldn't make what the people want, so what was the point in trying? Sure, he had built up his company for years but he hadn't been doing well for quite a few months. Maybe it was time to give it all up, to throw in the towel. Work in a gas station for the rest of his life. Prove everyone right when they said that he would never amount to anything.

'Look Ruby, this company means more to me than anything. But if I can't create what I want to create, then I don't see the point in carrying on. I don't want to change who I am or what I want to do so as to please others. If people don't like my documentaries, fair enough.' he clasped his hands behind his head and rubbed his hair against his interlocking fingers.

'Jesus Christ Craig! There's nothing wrong with change! You're willing to give up a company which you've worked on for the past 5 years, and for what? Because you don't want to try something new? So what if it doesn't work, at least-'she slowed down and took a deep breath in, deepening her tone, 'at least you tried. Look, I know it's not the most original idea. But who knows? You might even enjoy it.'

He untangled his fingers and placed his elbows on the table, looking up to his sister, 'Fine.'

That was all she needed. She leapt up off of the desk with the papers in her hands and took off out the door.

'Ruby, what are you doing.'

'Making a few calls Craig, making a few calls.'

And with that, she left Craig both speechless and paperless.

* * *

**A/N: **I plan for this fic to be a bit of slow burner. I promise I won't bore you about the contents of the documentary, I just thought I could play on how Stan and Craig both love animals, you know? I've also used the fan-given name for Craig's little sister throughout, but if we are given a canon name I'll change it.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading :w:


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